Lurker > half_silver28

one bump only
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

wish there were a few more guesses on this, but I guess its difficult for the big companies early on. The third match of Group 1 is:

(5)Kefka vs (12)Simon Belmont

I would best describe Kefka as The Joker of gaming. Not only due to his appearance, but how he is the iconic villain of the Final Fantasy series, and one of the most iconic villains of gaming in general. He starts off as a humorous joke of a character, but he eventually becomes a nihilistic monster and by the end of the game, a literal GOD. His popularity only increased when he appeared in Dissida and finally got decent official art.

Simon Belmont is not someone I would say is overly popular in his own right. Most people would say they prefer a different Belmont like Richter over him. But he WAS the first Belmont. The fact that he established the Belmont clan that would continue fighting Dracula title after title makes him iconic. And the well-known gameplay of the Castlevania series also started with him. His design also makes him stand out as a bit of wild character. Just don't talk about his appearance in Captain N...

Simon has gained a good bit of popularity thanks to smash, but Kefka is very well-loved on Gfaqs and hasn't really had one of his infamous contest flops in a long time. I would say Kefka wins with 58%.

The fourth match of Group 1 is:

(4)Vivi vs (13)Strider Hiryu

Just going off of his FF9 appearance, Vivi probably would not rank this high. But the fact that he has the classic black mage design makes him a timeless sort of character. The classic black mage design and class appeared in many of the older FF games, giving Vivi a legacy from long before FF9 came out. He was also the most well-loved character from his game. The combination of his innocence and a tragic, tear-jerker of a story won over players. Vivi and the black mage archetype in general are the iconic spellcasters of RPGs.

Strider is the very image of the cool protagonist. The weapons, the flowing scarf, the movement: it's all there. He is one of the most popular Capcom characters of all time. And yet his games were never hugely successful, and only lived on among speedrunning communities and small hardcore fanbases. Well his first arcade game was popular but overshadowed by GnG and eventually Street Fighter. The majority of his popularity probably comes from the MvC games, where his flashy moves and speedy gameplay make him one of the standout characters.

Seriously? I could have sworn Strider was in a contest after 2002 but I can't find him. Nonetheless Vivi has typically around the high midcarder to near elite level in contests. Strider will get a decent number of votes for being cool, but I ultimately see Vivi getting about 60% here.

The fifth and sixth matches of Group 1 are:

(6)Nintendo vs (11)3D Realms

and (3)Capcom vs (14)Monolith Soft
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

will post the writeup for the next matches tomorrow morning
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

My match analysis is for a hypothetical Gamefaqs match. I think Raiden and Kerrigan are closer now than they would have been in 2013 - Kerrigan lost to Missile in a three way and Raiden was coming right off of Rising. Missile also had the standout pic of the match and the good doggo bonus.

Nonetheless I didn't recall how weak Kerrigan's contest history was. Raiden probably gets 62-64%.
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

Metalmind called it out right away, the second match of Group 1 is:

(8)Raiden vs (9) Sarah Kerrigan

Raiden was an obvious inclusion here. His reveal as the protagonist of MGS2 was one of the most infamous moments in gaming, and his portrayal in the game was very polarizing and controversial. Not to mention the countless memes spawned from the game. He then became possibly THE redemption story of gaming. His redesign in MGS4 was positively received, and became an outright bad*ss in Metal Gear Rising. Thanks to Platinum Games, of course.

Kerrigan was another easy pick for the bracket. She's a PC game icon, and one of the best female villains in gaming. Her transformation from human hero to alien villain is iconic, as well as her merciless nature. And yet there is enough humanity remaining to suggest she can be redeemed. Her design is also iconic, being the poster girl for "evil is sexy".

However, the bulk of Starcraft's popularity comes from its gameplay and not its story, which hinders Kerrigan's potential. And Starcraft has not had a lot of games on consoles either, which make it somewhat niche among western audiences. So despite the tragic fall of the Metal Gear series, Raiden won't have trouble winning this match. I would predict 57% for Raiden - he is just way more well-known among western gamers.

As promised, I will start listing matches two at a time. The third match of Group 1 is:

(5)Square vs (12)Konami

The fourth match of Group 1 is:

(4)Square vs (13)Capcom
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

As many of you figured out, the first match of Group 1 is:

(1)Mario vs (16) Darth Revan

Starting with Mario is cliche, yes, but there's nowhere better to start. Its FREAKING MARIO. He is one of the most well-known characters from any form of media worldwide. The success of Super Mario Bros arguably saved the gaming industry back in the 80s, after having already starred in Donkey Kong which was another one of the most important games of all time. Hundreds of games later and the big M has yet to slow down to this day.

To be honest I am not very familiar with KOTOR or Star Wars games in general. But Revan emerged as the most notable protagonist created for a Star Wars game. He has some popularity among SW fans in general, but the primary reason he makes the bracket is how his story is presented in KOTOR. Players can choose to guide him to the light or dark side, and the choices they make actually matter. Many games have tried and failed to make this work well, but KOTOR pulls it off. He is a strong lead for that game and for the other games he appears in. The end of his first game also has one of the iconic plot twists in gaming, regarding his past. He is hardly a household name but his impact on gaming can't be denied.

However, this won't be much of a match. Revan will be lucky to get 20% on Mr Video Game himself, with a few of those percentages being Mario anti-votes.

After this round, I will start listing 2 matches every day to make this topic move more quickly. Without further delay, the second match of Group 1 is:

(8)Konami vs (9)Blizzard
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

I will provide another bit of info for predictions - the number of characters for each company. I will only list the companies with multiple characters in the bracket -

Capcom: 22 entrants
Nintendo and Square: 20 entrants
Konami: 10 entrants
Bandai Namco: 6 entrants
Sega: 5 entrants
Midway Games: 4 entrants
Blizzard, Atlus, Valve: 3 entrants
Bioware, Bungie, SNK, Enix, Platinum Games: 2 entrants
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA

Hello Board 8 - not that anyone remembers who I am. Exclusively lurking only to post in Save My Persona for 5 years will do that. It has been many years since I last did significant writing or hypothesizing about gaming stuff, but I always wanted to get back to it.

I put some hours of research into getting my CB2018 bracket put together, which definitely paid off on my end ranking. The contest had some hype matches but overall it felt wanting. Nintendo dominated a little too much, and the double votes did not help matters. Not to mention the multitude of fodder characters in the bracket. I started thinking that maybe the straight character battle format has run its course, and that new concepts should be brought in to spice things up.

I came up with the idea of making a bracket based on how influential a game character is, instead of assembling the bracket based on popular votes and guru picks. Obviously if this were to be run as an actual contest it would be opened up to voting to decide who makes it in. But I came up with a mock bracket of my own - taking into account a character's popularity, influence on other games and the game industry in general, and their role in gaming history. Other minor factors I looked at were the character's number of game appearances and cameos. I ended up going with a 128 entrant bracket because anything longer would be a pain to seed. I also left a lot of popular characters out of the bracket, because I could not figure out where their influence on gaming was.

I figured that instead of just posting the bracket, I would make an actual game of it. I will post the bracket one matchup at a time, with the character names removed. They will be replaced with the company that created the character and/or their first game. This will include now-defunct companies. I will then open up the topic to guesses as to which characters they are. Some may be obvious, but it will always be a guessing game when Nintendo, Capcom, Konami etc show up. After a day or so I will reveal the characters, along with my reasoning for their seed and a brief match analysis. I'll do this through all 64 matches. After all are revealed I guess I will discuss the bracket as a whole. Maybe if there's interest I will actually run the bracket as a B8 contest.

Anyway, the first match of Group 1 is:

(1)Nintendo vs (16)Bioware
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B8 Waifu ranking - http://pastebin.com/qnUpLnDA